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The fund-raising executive from UT Southwestern Medical Center phoned first. Then she sent an urgent email to the president’s office about the patient.

“We need to expedite care,” Cynthia “Cyndi” Bassel wrote last year. She asked the president’s aide whether he would call two of the patient’s UTSW doctors “to help speed things along.”

“If not,” Bassel said in the email, “I can handle.”

Such emails, which we recently obtained, shed new light on the intersection of medicine and fund-raising at UTSW.

We first learned of that in 2007, after receiving a leaked UTSW list of people designated for favored treatment. The state-supported institution had insisted VIPs didn’t get better or faster care at its university hospitals — just “non-medical courtesies,” such as free valet parking and an unlisted after-hours number to reach doctors.

In response to the emails, UTSW spokeswoman Nimisha Savani said all patients receive the “same prompt attention” and “in no instance is a physician asked to ‘bump’ a patient to accommodate one of these requests.” (Full response here.)

UT Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Memorial Hospital are known for their contributions to medical research and public health. But have those accomplishments have come at a price? Here is a look at The Dallas Morning News’ coverage of allegations of billing fraud, lax resident supervision, preferential medical treatment and possible patient harm at the publicly funded institutions: